Hi, I’ve got a spindle of TDK -R 16x media here and it’s mid code is CMC-mag AM3. I was just wondering what others think of this media, is it generally ok? The scans I’ve done so far on this pack are slightly ordinary.

Right now I’m testing them on a Pioneer 112D and they’re not too bad on this drive. I’ve seen better scans but as long as they’re fairly stable over time I’ll be happy.

My friend however was trying to burn them on a Sony AW-G170A and the results were very poor. I’m thinking it may just be an issue with that burner. I really know very little about that Sony model, but from the limited tests that I’ve done it does seem to prefer DVD+R media over DVD-R.

While CMC MAG AM3 is not on TY or Verbatim levels it can be bad to decent to good media.
I guess it really all depends on what burner and speed you’re using to burn them with on how
good they will turn out. I use them time from time with all of my Samsung SH203B’s but never
with any of my Liteon drives because thats a big no,no. The Samsung drives do a decent
job of burning them while the Liteon drives I have absolutely hate them and do a crappy job
on burning them. :Z Like Arachne was saying they do not always scan beautifully even with
the Samsung burns but playback has never been a problem with them as long as I keep them
out of the Liteon burners.

I have a batch that is good up to a point…to burn the full capacity without an failed burn or to ensure that data at the end of the disc is recoverable, 6x is required. They scan well enough, though, so I’m not going to complain too much.

Alrighty here is one of my CMC MAG AM3 burns on the S203B that I just done a few minutes ago.
I scanned it on the S203B and then the same disc scanned on the Liteon 160P6S for comparison
and to get jitter levels on it.

I’ll post some of my scans. Please note that these are made on my Pioneer 112D as I don’t currently own any recognized good scanning drives. When looking at these pioneer scans just ignore the PIE and concentrate on the PIF. When I used to have a liteon I found the total PIF gives good correlation with scans from the pioneer so while some may disagree I do trust these scans, at least in terms of relative PIF numbers

The first scan is a reference point for what is a reasonably good scan on this drive. It’s GSC003 media which always burns very well on the 112D.

The second scan is one of these TDK CMC AM3’s burnt on my friends Sony AW 170A. She’s was having playback issues with some of these discs which is why I took this one for a scan. Actually it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be, it’s certainly not good but many players would accommodate that error level and still play without glitches. Anyway her home player may not be the best either because some of these discs are giving playback hiccups.

The third scan shows one of these TDK CMC AM3’s (from same spindle) burnt on my pioneer 112D. Not all that great, but still an improvement on those burnt by the Sony.

Thanks for all the valuable data, I just bought a spindle of TDK dvd-r’s. I looked up media code CMC MAG AM3 and I was disappointed to see TDK outsourcing to them as I had heard some really bad stories about cmc mag media being garbage 4th class at best.

[QUOTE=hunter52;2075475]Thanks for all the valuable data, I just bought a spindle of TDK dvd-r’s. I looked up media code CMC MAG AM3 and I was disappointed to see TDK outsourcing to them as I had heard some really bad stories about cmc mag media being garbage 4th class at best.[/QUOTE]

Welcome to the forum

I wouldn’t rate CMC as garbage or 4th class…though their 16x DVD+R (CMC MAG M01) leaves a lot to be desired.

But that still leave 8x - and +R, and 16x -R that’s great under good brands (HP, Infiniti, TDK etc)

I have some very workable TDK-branded CMC MAG M01 and CMC MAG AM3. I agree with [B]Arachne[/B], though. CMC can have good/great media, so don’t worry about it unless you have bad results or you have a brand known to sell B grade or worse media.

[QUOTE=hunter52;2075475]4th class at best.[/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure that I know where this comes from. I can tell you that your source for this info is a untrustable (because outdated) source. CMC DVDR production was crap 5 years ago, things have changed, and dramatically so. And the support for CMC in burners, which also had a great responsibility in the bad results people experienced, has also improved much.

Albert summed it up nicely. If you buy a reputable brand (TDK, HP…) and it’s actually CMC inside, no worries. Though the 16X +R can be tricky, so it’s better to stick with -R with these outsourcing brands (TDK is mostly outsourcing now).

A grade M01s are actually very good, better or comparable to the AM3 scans posted by MegaDETH and getit29. (similarly good results to A grade E01!)

It is interesting that you guys have mostly seen only junk M01s, whereas I have only seen junk AM3 - so we have opposite perceptions.

Scans - one of the better AM3s, one of the worst and one of the M01 scans that I could actually find. The AM3s were from a 20A1L @ 8x (pioneer burns were worse) and the M01, from a 212 @8x (actual burn date was start of 2007, reburn of old dvd image).

Mediatek chipset scans of the AM3s were similarly nasty, although with around half the reported PIF total.

Notice that the TDK branded discs were the only discs that were written above 8x. The others were written at 8x or less. Drive used in all scans is a LiteOn LH-20A1P, but had been crossflashed to DH20A4P for most of the burns.

[QUOTE=Francksoy;2077250]@Architectonic: would be interesting to know which brand are your discs. :)[/QUOTE]

As marked on the images, the AM3s were LG branded (spindle of 50, those are two different discs), the M01 was Imation branded (in jewel case). But the AM3s of a few other brands were almost as nasty (HP and a few others I can’t remember, when I scanned a few discs from friends).

[QUOTE=Architectonic;2077299]the AM3s were LG branded (spindle of 50, those are two different discs), the M01 was Imation branded (in jewel case). But the AM3s of a few other brands were almost as nasty (HP and a few others I can’t remember, when I scanned a few discs from friends).[/QUOTE]Thanks. I’m extremely surprised that Imation branded M01 turned out better than LG branded AM3. I guess it would surprise some others as well.

As marked on the images
Even with you telling me, I had a hard time finding what you were referring to! This is the place for the disc label, not the brand, so I never look at it when looking at scans posted!